Bend
by Wyntermute
Summary: During the Seige of the North, Katara pursues Zuko from the oasis rather than staying with her friends.
1. Prologue

**Title:** Bend  
**Fandom:** Avatar: The Last Airbender  
**Type:** Multi-chaptered  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairings:** Zuko/Katara  
**Word count:** 2,299  
**Summary:** During the Seige of the North, Katara pursues Zuko from the oasis rather than staying with her friends.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own this series, nor am I making any money from this story.

**Prologue**

There was a flash of fire, and in those precious few seconds that followed, Katara would make an observation and a decision that she would curse herself for throughout the next three weeks.

The sky darkened as the moon disappeared, the old man who traveled with that arrogant prince unleashed a frightening display of unexpected agility and power, Zhao turned and fled, and everyone else stared in shock at the floating body of the white koi fish. As the scene unfolded around her almost in slow motion, Katara caught a slight movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh no you don't," Katara muttered as she watched the form of a particular firebender slip through the small circular door that led back out to the rest of the North Pole.

The last thing the water tribe and her friends needed at this point was yet another dangerous and proficient firebender on the loose. He was much more manageable knocked out and slung over Appa's back. There was no time to explain, so she dodged through her stunned friends and ran swiftly after the escaping Prince Zuko.

As she left the oasis, she saw the prince jump clear over one of the walls of snow to a lower level. Katara followed as quickly as she could, but Zuko had a slight advantage of speed over her. She chased him along a set of battlements and through a devastated neighbourhood overrun with soldiers from both nations. From brief glances to either side, she could tell that the Water Nation was losing ground quickly without the vital energy supplied by the moon.

Suddenly, Katara's concentration on her pursuit was broken by a strange blue glow that the water had acquired. She skidded to a halt on the ice, noticing that Zuko was being detained just ahead on a ledge by another firebender, and watched as the water continued to gain an extraordinary radiance. Definitely not normal, yet somehow oddly soothing.

The fighting around her slowed as others began to notice their changing surroundings. Fire Nation soldiers raised their spears, ready to attack, while the Water Nation soldiers lowered their weapons in wonder.

At the top of the fortress, where the oasis was, the water formed itself into a gigantic figure, illuminating the snow with blue. Katara squinted and shielded her eyes from the light with a hand, trying to make out what was in the centre of the being.

"Aang!" she cried, recognizing the telltale signs of the avatar state, before falling almost automatically to her knees in a deep bow alongside the other members of the Water Tribe.

The figure moved throughout the city, meting out justice to any firebenders who had reached the inner part of the palace. Before it reached Katara, however, the form melted back into the water and moved towards the front of the frozen city.

As the blue light around her faded a little, Katara rose slowly to her feet. The remaining firebenders that the gigantic creature had not disposed of were being fought off by the newly motivated waterbenders. After all, she thought, having an enormous mystical creature with the avatar inside was good for morale.

Katara glanced back to the ledge where she'd last seen the prince she'd been chasing and realized with a start that he was fighting Admiral Zhao.

Puzzled as to why two firebenders would be fighting with each other, Katara shook her head and watched as they took their clash into the area below. She followed, jumping cautiously off the ledge, and found herself in a residential area. Her target and Zhao had moved to a nearby bridge and were attacking each other fiercely. With no intention of unnecessarily joining a fight that didn't concern her between two firebenders, Katara watched and waited. If the prince got himself knocked out, so much the better. If he won, she was ready to step in. Katara glanced briefly up into the blank night sky. Even with the moon gone and her waterbending weakened, she had confidence in her fighting abilities.

If the feeling that all was going horribly wrong had not pervaded her every sense, Katara would have found the scene unfolding in front of her almost surreal. Two firebenders fighting intricately only metres away, illuminating the area with flashes of red. One side of the battle beginning a retreat, the other severely drained of its power but continuing to drive back their aggressors. All with Aang's terrifying state casting a glow over the city, elongating the shadows northwards.

And suddenly, without warning, the moon faded back into existence.

Katara's eyes darted to look in the direction of the oasis, but were quickly drawn back to the fight between Zuko and Zhao as the glow from the light in the water grew stronger. She flung a hand in front of her eyes again, squinting and shielding them from the intense blue. The luminous creature -- Aang, she corrected herself -- grabbed Zhao and began to draw him into the canal. With a cry, Zuko offered him his hand, as though the two had not been fighting only moments before.

Zhao, proud to the end, drew back his hand and vanished into the water.

Running to the edge of the walkway, Katara gaped at the ripples dispersing from where the admiral had been pulled under. Surely he would come up. It was his duty to end the war and halt the advance of the firebender army, but Aang had never _killed_ anyone before.

"What are _you_ doing here? And stop gaping, you look enough like a fish already."

Rounding on the prince, a furious remark ready to fire back at him, she had just enough time to see another hand form from the water and seize Zuko from his place on the bridge.

Reacting without a second thought, Katara lept onto the balustrade and jumped to tackle him from the water creature's grasp.

Their thick parkas collided and the watery claws tightened as she too was drawn into its hold. The hand began to descend back into the shining water, but stopped abruptly, as though realizing that it was about to drown a friend. The grip relaxed and the glowing water continued its journey upstream, leaving Katara and Zuko to plunge into the icy canal below.

Salt water stinging her eyes, her thick clothing offering no protection from the freezing water, gasping and spluttering for breath, Katara held onto Zuko tightly as they were propelled downstream by the current.

Disoriented and quickly becoming exhausted, it was all she could do to keep the two of them above the surface. It was obvious that Zuko was in a similar state and his efforts to steer the two of them towards a canal wall did nothing. The current was much stronger than usual, and Katara wondered for a second if that was the fault of the ongoing battle and destruction of the city or somehow caused by Aang's mysterious form.

They hurtled along, trying desperately not to drown, until the back of Zuko's head met a lone plank of wood with a sharp crack.

With one hand supporting the dazed prince, Katara looped her other arm around the plank and got up to her shoulders out of the cold water. Zuko began to slip away from her.

She tried to keep the panic out of her voice. "Snap out of it! It was just a bump on the head. Do something useful, your spoiled royal highness!" No, her voice was definitely higher pitched than usual.

Zuko's arm shot up immediately and grabbed the other end of the plank.

Teeth chattering from the cold, they glared at each other from opposite ends of the board.

And that was when Katara realized they'd been swept out past the city walls and into the harbour.

Her eyes widened. What had been an intimidating navy at the beginning of the night was now half destroyed, half in retreat.

"The flagship, it's sinking."

Katara bit back a reply about how these were the first non-hostile words she'd ever heard him say. Ahead, she noticed a large, magnificent ship alight with flames and sinking fast. Zuko began to swim, wooden plank in tow, towards the wreck.

"No! What are you doing! Do you want to get us both killed!" Katara kicked frantically in the opposite direction.

He didn't bother turning to face her as he spoke and continued to pull them forward. "The firebenders on that ship… I can't let my subjects drown."

"If we get too close, we'll be pulled under as the ship sinks! You can't do much for them if you're _dead_!"

He considered this for a moment, stopped moving forwards, and Katara thanked fervently that he at least had some scraps of reason.

"So we're just going to sit here in this freezing water and wait until frostbite kicks in?"

"You're quite the master of sarcasm, aren't you? Anyway, no, we're going to move towards ground." She peered around. "The shore on our right looks to be closer. Don't let go of the wood while you swim." She tried to start moving in the direction of the land. He didn't move.

"How useless are you? Or has your brain already frozen that much? You're a waterbender, aren't you? Form us something more solid."

She blinked. Her eyebrows moved to crease in an annoyed expression.

"Yeah, I was just getting around to that."

Concentrating, she began to form an area of water in front of her into a thin sheet of ice. The process was made considerably more difficult without the use of her arms to guide the movement of her waterbending, but she continued to add layers of ice until she had formed a small, but solid, floating chunk of ice. After climbing carefully onto it, she balanced the other side while Zuko lifted himself onto it as well, still holding the plank of wood.

Katara stood cautiously, extended her arms, palms outward, drew them back in towards her, downwards, and then repeated the movement. Gentle waves responded to her summons and pushed the makeshift craft along the sea.

"Use the wood to help steer us."

Zuko rose and used the soggy wood as a crude rudder.

"This is still going to take us at least a half hour to reach the coast. And the current is too strong, we're being pushed further out to sea."

"Quiet! Just steer. Unless you'd like to concentrate on making these waves yourself?"

He said nothing in response.

After a minute, Katara realized they were veering off course.

"Where are you steering? Land is that way, _that way_." Her arms still moving in the same pattern, she motioned with a nod of her head.

"That raft up ahead… That's my uncle on it."

Sure enough, a vague, short and rather round man was waving to them from a small raft. Squinting, Katara thought she recognized him as the man who had threatened Zhao earlier in the oasis. The raft appeared to be made up of a few boards of wood balanced on two pontoons, with a single crude sail.

"Unlike you uncivilized Water Tribe peasants, members of the Fire Nation do not abandon their kin."

He couldn't resist, could he?

"But they have no problem sending the world to war and killing innocent people? You _must_ explain your complex moral code to me at some point."

Neither could she.

"Watch your mouth peasant! Don't forget you're speaking to royalty! And the Fire Nation is nothing but honourable and glorious!"

Katara stopped her waterbending movements, clenched her fists, and turned furiously to face Zuko. "You are so blind! Can't you see that there's no reason to --"

" -- Welcome aboard my humble raft!"

Pausing in her tirade, Katara turned to see Zuko's uncle, smile on his face, his arms outstretched in a welcoming gesture. His raft was only a few metres away now. Katara was surprising to find that the current must be stronger than she'd thought.

"Unfortunately I have not come up with a name for it yet. The H.M.S. something-or-other. Maybe some sort of reference to the beautiful ginseng flower?" He rubbed his bearded chin thoughtfully and helped them onboard as they approached closer to his raft.

"Ah, but where are my manners! My name is Iroh, and I am Zuko's uncle." The older man bowed politely to Katara.

"Katara. It's an honour to meet you, sir Iroh," she said as she bowed. Member of the Fire Nation or not, this man appeared well-mannered and kind. Katara took an immediate liking to him.

"You can just call me Uncle Iroh." He smiled benignly. "So you are going to accompany us to the nearest Earth Kingdom land, yes?"

"No, no, I've got to get back to my friends and the Northern Water Tribe--"

Iroh cleared his throat and looked pointedly northwards.

Looking in the direction of the city, her face fell.

She might be confident, but she wasn't stupid. There was no way she could get back to the city on her own. In the few moments that her and Iroh had been talking, the raft had been pushed much too far from the icy fortress.

"It looks, my dear, like that option might not be possible." He sat down cross-legged beside the small mast.

Zuko's voice cut in from beside her. "Let's just push her off. She'll only be trouble for us."

Katara's teeth clenched and ground audibly. "Excuse me? Is that any way to talk to the person who _helped save your life_?"

"I never asked for your help!"

"I should have just let that water creature drown you!"

Uncle Iroh sighed, looked up at the restored moon, and settled in for a long journey.


	2. Chapter 1

**Title:** Bend  
**Fandom:** Avatar: The Last Airbender  
**Type:** Multi-chaptered  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairings:** Zuko/Katara  
**Word count:** 2,247  
**Summary:** During the Seige of the North, Katara pursues Zuko from the oasis rather than staying with her friends.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own this series, nor am I making any money from this story.

**A/N:** Many thanks to Tory for help with dialogue.

**Chapter 1**

Even during the first day at sea, Katara had concluded that travelling with the two firebenders might not be so bad. Uncle Iroh had used his firebending to suspend a small fire slightly above the surface of the raft. Grateful, Katara had warmed herself and began to dry her drenched clothes. On the other side of the raft, Zuko was doing the same for himself. Perhaps this journey would work out after all. Besides, Sokka and Aang were bound to come looking for her. She'd see Appa's familiar form somewhere on the horizon any minute now.

"Leave it to the Water Nation to leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. If it weren't for your magical water whatever that thing was, we wouldn't be living like penguins right now! And that creature counts as cheating, anyway."

Or maybe she was trying desperately to look on the bright side.

"Well if your Fire Nation wasn't so bent on destroying other civilizations, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place! Why is your Fire Lord doing this anyway? To rule the whole world, gain unlimited power? That is so, so… cliché!" she snapped, and stamped her boot-clad foot on the raft.

A second later, Katara found herself dangling by the collar of her parka over the freezing water.

"You have no right to speak about the Fire Lord like that! Give me one reason why I shouldn't just toss you off our raft!" he shouted furiously as he held her at arms length above the water.

Somehow, attempting to fight didn't seem like a great option while suspended above icy water, and when the only moderately solid object she could see for miles was a soggy bunch of planks, which would likely not take well to any fighting. She chose to appeal to whatever reason might reside in the unstable prince instead.

"Well, you see…" she began hesitantly, "I _am_ a waterbender. So I can catch fish, and make drinking water…"

Zuko's face hadn't changed.

"… and since water is all there is out here, and you seem to be missing an army of servants to tend to your every whim, it might possibly be a good idea to keep around the one person who hasn't been pampered all their life and knows a thing or two about living in the arctic."

Still definitely not impressed.

"But by all means, go ahead. Don't let me stop you from throwing your one chance at survival overboard, your _highness_."

She was pretty sure she was going to get dumped in the water any minute now.

"Actually, I think it _would_ be very beneficial to have Katara onboard our little ship," piped in Uncle Iroh from his place on the other side of the raft. He was still lounging and looked half-asleep.

Zuko glanced away from Katara to look, with extreme doubt, at his uncle for a moment.

"What is it Uncle? You think she might _actually_ be useful?"

"Why yes."

Katara held her breathe in anticipation.

"You see, along with my bass and your tenor, the addition of her alto voice would provide for a rather nice singing troop. And how else will we pass the time before we're rescued?"

He made a slightly stifled, murderous noise, and Katara could feel Zuko shake with frustration as he closed his eyes and valiantly fought off the urge to burn the ship and all of its passengers to a crisp. He turned suddenly and chucked her unceremoniously back onto the wooden planks, before stomping all of four steps to a corner of the raft and sitting with his arms and legs crossed. Katara wasn't quite sure what to do at this point, but was fairly certain that sticking her tongue out at the Prince of Arrogant Jerks was not the right action. Tempting, but below her.

So she did it anyway, just in time for Zuko to open his good eye to glance at her with a classic glare, which Katara had a sinking feeling that she would be seeing a lot more of.

"You do that again and I'll burn your tongue out of your mouth."

She returned the glare as he closed his eye again and looked as irate as ever. She smiled cautiously at Iroh, who appeared to have already gone back to sleep, and then opted for rolling onto her back and watching the clouds. Putting her hands behind her head, she prepared for another few hours of strained silence, before drifting off to sleep with worried thoughts about the state of her brother and Aang.

She awoke a few hours later to the grumbling of her stomach.

With a hand to her rumbling stomach, Katara noticed that Zuko and Iroh had hardly moved. In his sleep, whether feigned or real, Iroh made small noises of hunger and rubbed his belly absentmindedly. Zuko, eyes closed, had his usual grumpy expression on his face as he meditated.

Katara scowled. It appeared that she was going to have to depend on herself for food.

Steadying herself on the edge of the raft, Katara tried to look into the dark water. Having lived in the Antarctic for most of her life, she certainly knew a thing or two about finding food in the ocean.

Unfortunately this was a bit different. First of all, there were no birds or mammals in sight. Any member of the Southern Water Tribe knew that animals were the key to finding food. Equipped with better instincts than humans, they would find fish for you. All a Water Tribe member had to do was set up nets opposite to the hunting ground of penguins or whatever else, and as they fled from their natural predators, the fish would bring themselves right into the nets. This was the main method that Katara knew, and the one that she had practiced most often.

This place was also too unknown to dive into and she was lacking a fishing spear. Besides, without a warm place and secure shelter for after a hunt, diving for fish would do her more harm than good.

Katara let her mind wander as she stared idly at the ripples around the raft. The light was glinting off the water, but she could still make out a vague form that was her reflection. Familiar brown hair, tanned skin, blue eyes looked back at her from the faint image. Not a lot had changed in the few months since she'd left on her journey. She frowned and poked at her cheekbones. Her face was still not as sharply defined as she would have liked it to be.

In less visible aspects though, Katara recognized how far she had come. Leaving the security of her community had given her experiences she would have otherwise never encountered. Along with a furthered sense of independence, she had new knowledge and appreciation of other cultures. Not the mention being named a waterbending master, she thought as she allowed a small grin to creep onto her face.

"Grrraaaaaarrrrgggghhhh!"

Eyes wide, she hugged her arms to her stomach, hoping that the other two hadn't heard that embarrassingly loud rumble.

It was definitely time to do something about the food situation.

Standing up, she readied herself in a basic waterbending stance, with her arms positioned as though holding a ball in front of her body. Furrowing her brow, closing her eyes, and concentrating deeply, she reached out to sense the water around her.

After a few minutes, she wasn't having much luck.

"Just standing there isn't going to get us any food, you know."

She would not turn around and acknowledge him. Not even react in the slightest. And he was so not getting any of her fish. Whenever it came along.

"Don't tease her, Zuko. She's making an effort."

Unlike a certain _someone_, she thought.

"How hard can it be to find a few fish in the middle of the _ocean_?"

She felt Zuko stomp his way across the raft and crouch beside her.

He made a noise of irritation. "This water is too dark to see into."

More stomping, over to the other side this time.

With her eyes still closed, Katara gave up trying to ignore him. "Stop that!"

"Stop what?"

"Moving around like that! You'll scare the fish away. They can hear the vibrations."

He stomped back towards her. Just because he was being a disagreeable brat, she was sure.

"You just know _so_ much don't --"

Her concentration broken, she rounded on him, cutting off his words. "Would you just _shut up_?"

She really had to learn to control her temper. A little anger made for a lot of powerful waterbending. Especially since she was waving her arms in agitation.

A mass of water sprang from the ocean, drenching the prince. Carried along with it, a small fish struck Zuko in the face before flopping onto the raft.

They all blinked in unison before slowly looking down at the wriggling fish.

As the realization of what had just happened kicked in, Katara's face transformed into an expression of joy. On the other hand, Zuko blushed faintly with embarrassment and tensed with anger.

Uncle Iroh didn't need any particularly keen skills of observation to sense the developing danger in this situation.

He stepped hastily between the two, startling both of them. "What a delicious looking fish! Zuko, I am sure that if you cooked it just right with some firebending it would make quite the meal!" Iroh picked up the fish and placed it in his nephew's hands before turning to Katara. "Well done! If you can find another two like this and make us some water to drink, we'll be well off indeed!" Taking her by the shoulders, he turned her towards the edge of the raft again, a cautious distance from Zuko.

Still beaming with pride from a perfect combination of finding food and humiliating her infuriating shipmate, Katara set to work on locating two more fish.

This time, she removed her thick mittens, immersed her hands in the ocean, and used her bending to let the water find the fish for her. It wasn't long before she handed two more fish for dinner over to the waiting Uncle Iroh. Acting to maintain peace, he carried them over to Zuko, the raft's designated cook.

"The last one's mine!" Katara called over her shoulder, as she carefully altered salt water into drinking water and filled up the flask at her hip. The last fish was the largest. Since she had caught them, why should she not be entitled to it?

Putting her mitts back on, she moved towards the two men at the other side of the raft. Zuko had removed the scales from the fish and was carefully heating the last one, Katara's, on a section of a plank that was slowly turning black. The other two were lying not too far away and looked quite delicious in her starved mind. Katara couldn't help but gloat about her accomplishments as the smell of the cooked fish reached her.

"_See_ your highness, if you'd have thrown me overboard before, you still wouldn't have anything to eat!"

In hindsight, perhaps that had been a bad idea.

As Zuko's temper flared and he looked away from his task, the fish went up in flames.

Crying out in an almost comically horrified way, Katara doused it quickly with water from her flask.

All three of the raft's passengers stared at the still smoking fish.

Katara moved, in shock, to pick up her ruined dinner and the two other fish beside it that were fortunately safe.

"You _burned_ my fish."

"It wasn't much of a fish to begin with."

"That still doesn't make it alright to burn it!"

"It's not that bad. Stop being a baby."

"You. Lit. It. On. Fire."

As they continued to argue and were consumed with glaring at each other, Uncle Iroh deftly plucked the charred fish from Katara's hand and took a bite.

"Delicious!" He declared. "I hear that a dose of charcoal every once in a while can be good for you health."

"That's a lie, and you know it Uncle."

"No, no, really…" He took another bite and munched happily on it. "This fish is excellent! You see, working together accomplishes more than either one of you could have done on your own."

Katara shoved one of the fish she held into Zuko's hands and gave him a furious look. He was still looking at his uncle, and Katara thought he seemed somewhat ashamed. At least he isn't completely lacking a conscience, Katara grumbled in her mind.

That didn't change the fact that her formerly delicious fish was now charred beyond all recognition.

As she took a bite into the fish in front of her, her mood improved. It was smaller than the other one had been, but she was so hungry that it tasted good enough to rival the feast they'd had at the northern Water Tribe's palace.

Zuko had not touched his food, she noticed. He kept glancing awkwardly between his fish and the burned one in his uncle's hands.

Suddenly, he swapped his fish for the burned one and began to eat what was left of it, without a word.

Iroh just smiled, before beginning on his new meal.

They ate the rest of their humble meal in silence, with Zuko's eyes averted almost guiltily towards the raft's planks.


	3. Chapter 2

**Title:** Bend  
**Fandom:** Avatar: The Last Airbender  
**Type:** Multi-chaptered  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairings:** Zuko/Katara  
**Word count:** 1,913  
**Summary:** During the Seige of the North, Katara pursues Zuko from the oasis rather than staying with her friends.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own this series, nor am I making any money from this story.

**A/N:** Let's just assume that Zuko never saw the aurora australis while sailing around the South Pole, and also knows nothing of the northern lights.

* * *

**Chapter 2

* * *

**

The cold, she could handle. She was from the South Pole, after all. The sunlight glaring off the calm water and the occasional iceberg had been headache inducing at first, but by now her eyes had adjusted. Even the boredom could be passed with the help of some imagination.

The increasing feeling that Sokka and Aang weren't going to fly in and pluck her from the middle of the ocean at any moment was a bit more tough, but still bearable. By now, they were probably continuing their journey. After all, in the rational, bigger picture, making Aang into a true Avatar took precedence over finding a missing team mate. That would definitely be the reason why they were no longer looking for her. Absolutely not the depressing thought that they probably assumed she was dead by now. No way at all. As such, with a little bit of denial, Katara could keep dreary, unwanted thoughts from her mind.

What Katara simply could not abide though, was the smell of three people, sweaty from previous battles, and unwashed for seven days.

She would very much like to blame it entirely on the two men, with juvenile thoughts of icky boys and how gross they were. Unfortunately, the fact was that she stank just as bad as them.

And it was bothering her.

Although surrounded by water, they couldn't exactly take a dip in the ocean, what with it being bitterly cold. As she continued to contemplate what to do about the lacking hygiene of herself and her fellow castaways, something in the air above caught her eye.

Overjoyed, she jumped to her feet and cried out "Look! Birds! We must be getting close to land if they're out here!"

Uncle Iroh was more realistic. "Actually Katara, I believe those would be sea vultures. See the wing span? Those birds are used to flying with no land for a long time." He folded his hands and rested them on his belly before continuing prosaically, "Of course, we'll know for sure in a few minutes if they start attacking us. Since they're in such a large group, we must look like easy prey."

Katara's heart fell and Zuko scanned the skies warily.

The birds circling above the raft looked relatively harmless at first, but as she continued to watch, they drew closer together and began to spiral downwards. Definitely focussing in on a target, Katara thought as she readied herself into a bending stance. Beside her, Zuko did the same. Uncle Iroh remained seated and seemed generally unconcerned.

Breaking the tense mood, one daring bird dove towards the raft.

Reacting instantly, Katara pushed upwards with her arms, throwing water from the ocean towards the sea vulture. At the same time, Zuko punched a shot of flames upwards.

Colliding in mid-air in front of their target, the two attacks dissolved into vapour. Startled, the sea vulture flapped back towards its companions.

"What are you doing, you stupid girl? Don't put out my attacks!"

"I could've handled one bird by myself, thank you very much!"

"Oh look, here they come again." Iroh's voice snapped the attention of the two bickering teenagers back to the real problem.

This time it wasn't just one bird. The entire flock decided to have a try at the tasty looking humans lost at sea.

Zuko and Katara let loose frantic shots, trying desperately to keep the birds at bay. As the assault continued and weariness began to set in, it was increasingly difficult to keep the vultures back.

Uncle Iroh simply contributed his advice to the situation while sitting cross-legged near the mast, seemingly undisturbed by the carnivorous birds that intended on making him their dinner. "Targeting one of them at a time probably won't be enough to scare them off. Try something with a bit more range."

The birds flew upwards, regrouped, and dove in together for another attack. Katara prepared to form a shield of ice around the raft, while Zuko readied a volley of fire.

Unfortunately, small spaces such as the surface of the raft were not conducive to two fighters doing as they pleased.

Katara's right foot met with Zuko's left, sending them both tumbling onto the planks. Her concentration and stance gone, Katara's ice shield turned back into water and briefly shot upwards, hitting the vultures, just as Zuko's fireballs were launched off course. With the hiss of fire against water, the former ice shield crashed downwards, drenching the occupants of the raft in the heated water.

Squawking and disoriented by the fire and water that had hit their flock, the sea vultures moved onwards to look for easier prey. The castaways were left dripping wet, but unharmed.

Their survival, however, did not stop Zuko from one of his usual rants.

"What were you doing sabotaging my attack?! Now we're all soaking wet! If you hadn't gone and…"

On the upside, Katara thought sarcastically as she tuned him out and wrung out her braid, at least they'd had their first bath in a week.

* * *

Despite being exhausted from the earlier attack, Katara did not sleep well that night. Drifting in and out of vague dreams for a few hours, she was finally pulled fully awake by a particularly frightening one that vanished from her memory as soon as her eyes snapped open. It had featured Sokka and Aang, but she could remember no more than that.

The night was calm and quiet, broken only by Uncle Iroh's snores. The northern lights shone faintly in the sky. Blinking a few times and allowing her eyes to adjust to the night, she noticed a figure sitting at the front of the raft. The squared shoulders and outline of a high ponytail identified the form immediately as Zuko.

Clearing her throat and raising herself up on her elbows, Katara called softly, "You're still up?"

Turning his head slightly to look at her over his shoulder for a moment, he replied, "Obviously. Someone has to keep watch, after all. Who knows when those sea vultures will come back?"

He might be a disagreeable, spoiled brat most of the time, but Katara knew when to give credit where credit was due.

"That was very good of you." She stood up and walked over to where Zuko was sitting. She sat down beside him, accidentally too close, so their legs, covered in thick winter clothes, brushed gently. She blamed it on her drowsiness, but made no attempt to move away. Neither did he. It was nice to be next to someone in the middle of a night in the arctic, she reasoned. Even if you wanted to strangle them most of the time.

"Nothing good about it. It's just common sense."

Why did he always have to argue about everything?

"Why don't you let me take over for a while? You should get some sleep."

"I'm not tired."

She rolled her eyes. He didn't notice. "Well, I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep, so I'm just going to stay up and keep watch with you whether or not you like it, Zuko."

She felt him startled and realized at that same moment what she'd done.

She'd said his name. Just his name. No 'your royal highness', no other sarcastic names or honorifics.

Not that he deserved _any_ honorifics anyway.

They both quelled the looks of surprise on their features, although the tension took a moment to fade.

"You don't need to stay up with me. I can do this by myself." He turned his face away from hers, looking out across the dark ocean.

Stubborn. She was never going to convince him to get some rest. Not that his health really mattered much to her, but a tired Zuko tended to be a more-cranky-than-usual one, and Katara didn't feel like handling more of that than she had to.

As the silence started to become uncomfortable, Katara searched for a neutral topic to break the awkwardness.

"Err… The northern lights are bright tonight. I don't think we've ever seen them out this clearly yet."

"The what? Is that what's making the sky all funny?"

"You don't know what the northern lights are?"

He shook his head.

Don't take this opportunity to insult his ignorance, just inform him, she chanted over and over in her head. "My brother claims he's heard some scientific explanation behind them, but as a child I was always told a traditional story about them."

She glanced, in what she hoped was a subtle way, over to him. He was still staring straight ahead. Seeing no signs of irritation yet, she decided to continue. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she recounted the story she'd heard so many times before.

"At the beginning of the world, all of the elements were still bending together, forming the earth. They moved around however they wanted though, causing disastrous things like volcanoes to be formed, which weren't good for the living creatures."

"Actually volcanoes are formed by plates of earth that either smash into each other or tear apart, which lets lava escape."

"You're the firebender, you'd know. But this is a _story_."

"I was just saying."

"And _I'm_ just saying the next part of the story. So anyway, the very first Avatar saw that something had to be done to force the elements to behave or nothing would be able to exist. She told them that they would be allowed to ascend into the sky and become the beauty of the northern lights if they would cooperate with each other and create a calm planet. Air and earth agreed and existed peacefully, as they were always in contact with each other. Apparently that's why mountain air is so nice, but that's not the point of the story. As air and earth were allowed into the sky and lent their colours to it, fire and water were having some problems. Fire was rebellious, and in its presence, water's temper boiled and they clashed horribly.

In an effort to stop the chaos across the land, the first Avatar taught fire and water to bend. They eventually learned from each other and became the elements that we know today. Water became less passive. It learned to break through the hardest rock and put out the hottest fire. Fire learned to be more controlled and allowed itself to be channelled. People could use it for campfires and learned how to control its destructiveness. When the two elements finally achieved states the pleased the Avatar, she allowed them to ascend into the heavens and complete the beautiful tapestry in the sky."

Hearing that old story again was comforting, and almost made her forget how far from home she was. For a few moments, both Zuko and Katara looked at the night sky as neither one of them said a word.

A voice from behind them broke the silence suddenly. "That was a lovely story, Katara."

Startled, the two teens jumped and turned to look behind them. Uncle Iroh, wiping the sleep from his eyes, beamed with his usual good humour.

Shaken, Katara hurried to cover her surprise. "Th-Thank you. It's very popular among my people, and one of my childhood favourites."

"You know, it reminds me of an old love song that I learned many years ago in the city of Bah Sing Sei. It goes a little something like this…"

Zuko groaned and put his head in his hands.

* * *

**A/N 2: **Apologies for no updates in quite a while. Have moved to France for a year. Further updates will probably be equally sporadic (after all, why write for fun when you can train it all over Europe?), although the next few chapters are mapped out. 


	4. Chapter 3

**Title:** Bend  
**Fandom:** Avatar: The Last Airbender  
**Type:** Multi-chaptered  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairings:** Zuko/Katara  
**Word count:** 1,960  
**Summary:** During the Seige of the North, Katara pursues Zuko from the oasis rather than staying with her friends.

**A/N:** Many thanks to Tory for help with dialogue. (A good deal of this was written a _long_ time ago.)

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"If it wasn't for your _stupid_ avatar and your _stupid_ people resisting the glory of the fire nation, we wouldn't be stuck here on this ridiculous hunk of wood!"

_Thunk._

Only half listening to him,Katara thought about telling him that if he made sourpuss faces all the time, it might get stuck like that.

"And if that blob of blue you serfs worship hadn't ruined everything, I would have the Avatar in my hands right now and be on my way to my father to reclaim my throne and my honour!"

_Thunk._

On second thought, his face was probably stuck like that already.

"I didn't even care about that stupid fish, I just wanted the avatar! Nothing ever goes right! I should be in a palace, not on a stinking raft with a girl who smells like blubber!"

_Thunk._

Yes, it was definitely a lost cause.

And she should probably stop hitting her head in frustration against the mast of the raft; it was getting a bit painful.

As Zuko lost interest in his latest tirade and resumed sulking at the front of the raft, scanning the horizon, Katara retreated back into her own thoughts, leaning up against the mast.

Their third week at sea was much the same as the previous weeks: sun, water, boredom, and Zuko complaining. Had she not scratched the passing days into a plank on the raft, Katara likely would have lost count of the time passed by now. Their raft was gradually floating its way south, with the help of her waterbending whenever she was bored and there was nothing else to do. Which happened to be quite often. Talking was usually kept to a minimum between all occupants of the raft, as tempers tended to shorten with each passing day. Only Iroh seemed relatively unfazed by their castaway status, and spent his days alternating between humming tunes, accompanied by drummed rhythms on his belly, and napping. Katara envied him.

Her least favourite person aboard the raft appeared to have only two moods: sulky, and angry. Katara wasn't sure which was better. Sulky tended to mean silent, and as long as she didn't look at him, it was as if he wasn't even there. Angry, however, broke up the monotony of life at sea. She still couldn't decide which mood she preferred, and she'd given it a lot of thought. After all, what else was there to do?

As for herself, she'd ended up permanently occupying the back of the raft, right near the mast and sail. This gave her a small amount of space away from the two men, who preferred to sit up near the front, on lookout for the chance that some form of land might appear. She didn't like to think about it, but as the days wore on, Katara became less optimistic about drifting into land anytime soon.

Without anything else to focus her mind on, Katara's imagination wandered to thoughts of what she would do with the rest of her life on a raft. She imagined she'd grow her hair out long, let it get all funky, and then have it dangle in the water. Some unlucky fish would inevitably get caught in it and voila! Instant dinner, no effort or waterbending required. Or maybe their raft would float to the fire nation, where Zuko in all his cruelty would order her imprisoned in a tower and then her long hair would come in handy when Aang and Sokka had to climb up it to rescue her. Or they could just fly up to her on Appa. Whatever.

Katara wondered idly if she had sunstroke by now.

* * *

She was lying on her back, limbs outstretched, staring into the mid-afternoon sky. The surprisingly entertaining activity of cloud-watching was out of the question for the moment, as the sky was too clear. 

It was risky, breaking the silence aboard the raft, but for the sake of her sanity Katara felt she must stir up some form of conversation. She said the first thing that came to mind, speaking even before her own answer was formed in her mind.

"What's the first thing you're going to do when we find land?"

She listened to her own breathing for a moment before Iroh's answer came. "I'm going to plant myself for a few days in the first tea shop I see. Or maybe massage parlour. Or maybe both."

To anyone meeting the Dragon of the West for the first time, she supposed that this answer would be surprising. But Katara knew better by now. The greatly renowned general of the Fire Nation was just a wise, kind, and eccentric old man.

During some of the hours surrounded only by ocean and sky, she wondered if her grandfather that she never knew had been like him.

Shifting her head slightly so that the warmth of the planks met her cheek, she looked vaguely in the direction of Zuko, who she swore hadn't moved in the past few hours, and waited for his response.

And waited.

Who was she kidding; she didn't expect a reply from him in the first place.

After trying to formulate a coherent and non-rambling idea of what she would do when she got back to land, she barely got out the first syllable before being cut off.

"We wouldn't have time for that, Uncle. We've already lost too much distance between us and the avatar."

_Typical._

She let out an exasperated sigh and focused an incredulous look towards him.

Katara hadn't noticed before, but he'd removed his shirt under the afternoon sun.

_Oh dear_, she thought, eyes wide and turning her head away quickly with a blush, they really must have sunstroke.

* * *

That evening as the sun began to set, Katara stood up slowly, bracing herself against the mast before stumbling into a basic waterbending stance. Might as well help the raft drift along to the south, and she'd hardly done anything physical all day. 

Bending half-heartedly, she gradually propelled them closer to what she hoped was the direction of land.

Iroh was humming softly, and it took her weary mind a few moments to catch the tune.

"How do you know a _Water Tribe_ song?" she asked, startled to hear it so far from home.

"Much less want to sing it." Zuko's expression was nothing short of appalled.

"Oh, I've done my fair share of travelling. It's a children's song, from what I can remember."

"That's right." Katara smiled as she remembered her village.

"I seem to recall the words going something like this…"

Iroh sat up and cleared his throat dramatically.

"Row row row your boat, gently down the stream!"

Zuko was beginning to look apoplectic, and as Katara knew that any opportunity to annoy Zuko further was not to be missed, she joined in with Iroh's singing.

"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream!"

"Come on Zuko, it's your turn now!"

In the corner of her eye, Katara could see that Zuko had sprung to his feet. She didn't care. Let him rant at them, this was the most fun she'd had in days.

"Shut_ up_, Uncle! And you too, peasant!"

They sang blithely on.

"_No_, I'm serious. _Shut up and look at the horizon._"

Silence fell abruptly. Katara and Iroh joined Zuko at the very front of the raft. They all gazed, disbelievingly, at the sight ahead of them.

Katara hoped to whatever power could hear her that this wasn't some horrible joke or trick of the light.

The setting sun illuminated a stretch of black, higher than the surrounding sea.

_Land._

They stared.

Zuko turned suddenly towards her, grasping her shoulders. For one fleeting moment, Katara's dazed mind thought that he was going to hug her out of joy. Of course, this illusion was dispelled when he started shaking her violently.

"What are you waiting for?! Bend us over there!"

Shoving him away, she got to work on doing just that.

When the sand under the water became visible, Katara jumped off the raft into the knee-deep, frigid water and splashed the rest of the way to shore before throwing herself face-first onto the beach. She hugged piles of sand to her chest, hoping that this wasn't all some hallucination or yet another wishful dream. When she was sure that her situation was indeed real, she flopped herself over onto her back to stare at the sky and made sand-angels. She never thought she'd be so glad to leave water behind.

Her raftmates' reactions were much more controlled than her own. They sat down, stunned, and tried to process that they were finally off that nightmarish raft. As the moments wore on, they all became aware of the fact that they were near-starving, covered in grime, and in desperate need of proper rest.

Iroh, ever the voice of reason, spoke first.

"We need to find an inn."

* * *

Katara knew they'd be the talk of the small fishing village for months to come. 

The mismatched group of castaways, looking like creatures washed up from the depths of the sea, stumbled into the shabby local tavern and inn. All activity stopped. Beer temporarily forgotten, the occupants of the room stared at the newcomers. Motioning for Katara and Zuko to stay at the entrance, Iroh approached the innkeeper at the counter. All eyes followed him. Digging around in his weather-worn clothes for the little money he had left, Iroh dropped it on the counter. With his mouth still hanging open in shock, the innkeeper automatically handed over a set of keys.

After thanking the man politely, Iroh waved Katara and Zuko over and they climbed the stairs up to the door leading to the inn's rooms. With one last round of glares at the still-silent tavern, Zuko closed the door behind them.

* * *

Towelling her hair dry, Katara wondered if she'd ever known a better feeling than being clean. As the smell of the dinner that they'd ordered reached her, she revised her thought. Clean and full of food would be better. Tossing the towel onto her bed, she joined Zuko and Iroh in the adjoining room where they were seated at a small table. After being served their food by the innkeeper's wife, they dug in and made short work of the meal. 

Content for the first time in many weeks, Katara leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

"So Katara, what are your plans now?" Iroh asked, casually.

She'd been trying to avoid that question. "I'm… not entirely sure. I need to find my brother and Aang, but I have no idea where to start. I don't even have any supplies or money." She didn't want to add that by now her friends had probably assumed she was dead and given up looking for her. She was trying not to think about that.

"Well, that settles it then. You'll travel with us."

Zuko exploded. "WHAT!? No way! No. Way. Have you finally gone senile uncle? She's the _enemy_. Friends with the avatar. She's _not_ coming with us!"

"Now, now, Zuko. How can you say that after all we've been through together? Would you abandon a young lady and have her travel alone? Where are your morals? Besides, even though our reasons are different, we're all looking for the same person. It only makes sense to stick together." Iroh had his patented cheerful smile pasted on. There was no arguing with that face.

"…Fine, she can travel with us." He gave in grudgingly before turning to look fiercely at Katara. "Maybe we can use her as bait to draw out the avatar."

As Katara proceeded to tell Zuko, rather loudly, what she thought of his idea, poor, long-suffering Iroh could only sigh.


End file.
